Cockatiel

NAME: Eng. Cockatiel, (misspelled sometimes Cockatail, Cockateil) Lat. Nymphicus Hollandicus On the photo up you can see cockatiel birds. Sometimes people mispell the the word cockatiel, with cockatail. ORIGIN: Cocktiel bird is found in the greater areas of Australia except for eastern, northern and southern coastal populated areas. PHYSICAL APPEARENCE: Cockatiel dominant color is grey. The wings and abdomen are darker. The head and crest are yellow, cheeks are orange-red. The great-wing coverts and the forward secondaries are white. The lower back, upper-tail coverts and middle-tail feathers are dark grey. The underside tail is black-grey. The bill and the part above the bill are grey. The iris is black-brown. Their feets are grey. Their sex is distinguishable. The crest in the female is yellow-grey while in the male it is totally yellow. The cheeks in females are pale orange. Young males have more yellow color on the head than females of the same age. Cockatiel birds can be found in several mutations which are white, albino (without the pigment), beady, speckled, birds without features (they have only the combination of grey and white colors). These are the most common. On the picture you can see grey cockatails birds. The female cockatiel has yellow-grey crest while in the male it is totally yellow. KEEPING AND CARE OF cockatiels: As budgerigars, cockatiels are most frequently kept as pets. They belong to a medium-sized class of parrots. It is very easy to tame them and teach them to imitate human speech. In order to become as tame as possible and attached to the owner, it is best to keep them separate. Young birds are easier to tame and they start to speak earlier. They do not demand very much keeping space. A cage of medium size is enough for their keeping. They like being free so that they can spend time on the owner's shoulder. Tame birds spend most of their time outside the cage. They enter the cage only to feed themselves and drink water. When they are outside the cage, it is advisable for one of the family members to watch them because they may hurt themselves or cause damage by nibbling on the furniture. The cage should be kept out of draught winds or a heat source, so that the bird is provided with normal life conditions. On the picture you can see one Lutino Cockatiel as a pet. This pet cockatiel is well tamed. In videos section you can see those two guys how they play together. COCKATIEL DIET: Speckled sunflower is the basic component of the mixture consisting of millet seeds, canary seeds and seeds of saffron, shelled oats, hemp, buckweat and flax seeds. Cuttle-bone and minerals have to always be available. Apples and carrots are their favourite sweets including blade, chicory and grapes. They like pecking into our plates, which should be avoided as it could lead to gastric problems caused by inadequate food intake. BREEDING and COCKATIEL NESTING: Breeding of cockatiel birds is easy. The breeding season lasts throughout the entire year. They breed also in winter if the temperature does not fall below 12C (54F). Cockatiel birds are inoffensive to other birds. It is possible to keep even more pairs together or even with other species of parrots.They can breed in aviaries or in larger cages. The nest should be placed on the upper part of the aviary or cage and the inside filled with large wood chips. On the photo you can see cockateil eggs with baby cockatiels. Breeding of coctails is easy. The appropriate dimensions of a nest are 25 cm (10 in) in length and 30 cm (12 in) in height. A male chooses the nest where a female cockatiel laying eggs. It lays 4-5 eggs, but sometimes cockatiels laying up to 8 eggs. Incubation lasts 18-19 days. The young stay in a nest for 33 days and separate three weeks after leaving the nest. For the nutrition of the younglings, it is necessary to give them boiled eggs or food based on eggs so the birds can develop to their full potential. Baby Cockateil birds taken from the nest. cockatiel breeder take the babys from the nest for this photo. INTERESTING FACTS: Average cockatail life span is 15 years, but there are cases where they have lived for 30 years or more. They belong to the family of cockatoos and they are the smallest members of this family. Pet cockatiel on owner's shoulder. Males can be distinguished from females by whistling or cockatiel singing. There are a great variations of cockatiel color and mutations. The birds of white-yellow color are the most popular ones. They can learn to pronounce a number of words and there are cases of those able to pronounce more than fifty words.